Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis (18 August 1774-11 October 1809) was Governor of the Louisiana Territory from 3 March 1807 to 11 October 1809, succeeding James Wilkinson and preceding Benjamin Howard.

Biography
Meriwether Lewis was born in Ivy, Albemarle County, Virginia in 1774, and he joined the Virginia militia upon his graduation from Liberty Hall in 1793. He served under William Clark in the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion, and he became a presidential aide to President Thomas Jefferson in 1801. Jefferson chose Lewis to lead an expedition to the Pacific, and Lewis hired Clark to accompany him. The "Lewis and Clark Expedition" explored the Louisiana Territory, established trade with the Native Americans near the Missouri River, and claimed the Northwest and Oregon for the United States, and he was appointed Governor of the Louisiana Territory in 1807. He died in Hohenwald, Tennessee in 1809 under mysterious circumstances, either having shot himself or having been murdered.